Preparation

To Make the Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Place the rack in the center of the oven. Butter and flour a 10-inch cake pan that is 3 inches deep such as a springform mold.

Sift the 1/2 cup flour, the cocoa, and the salt together onto a sheet of parchment paper and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla at high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and is very thick, about 8 minutes. When the whisk is lifted, the batter will form a thick ribbon as it falls back into the bowl.

Lower the speed to stir and carefully tap the dry ingredients into the egg mixture. As soon as all the flour has been added to the eggs, stop the machine. Pour in the melted butter, making sure to leave the white, milky solids behind. With a large rubber spatula, using as few strokes as possible, finish folding the flour mixture and butter into the batter until evenly mixed.

Immediately scrape the batter into the prepared pan, place the pan on a baking sheet, and bake until the cake feels just firm to the touch, about 40 minutes. Transfer the cake to a rack and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Then turn the cake upside down onto a rack to cool. This will flatten the slightly domed top.

To Make the Syrup:

Place the sugar and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the kirsch and remove from the heat. Pour the syrup into a small cup or bowl and set it aside.

To Assemble the Cake:

In a large bowl, whip the cream with the sugar and vanilla on medium-high speed until it holds firm peaks. Do not overbeat; the whipped cream should be smooth and firm. Divide the cream into 4 equal portions and set them aside. (This helps prevent getting to the last bit of decorating and discovering you have run out of cream.) Drain the cherries and divide them into 2 equal piles. Reserve 8 to 12 cherries to garnish the top of the cake if you do not have fresh cherries.

Place the cake on a work surface with its original top up. Trim off any hard crusts. With a long serrated knife, cut the cake horizontally into 3 even layers. Transfer the top layer to a serving plate, arranging it top side down. Brush it liberally with the syrup. With an offset spatula or rubber spatula, smooth on a 1/2-inch layer of whipped cream. Push the cream a little beyond the edge of the cake. (This prevents gaps when you settle the next layer on top.) Nestle half of the cherries into the whipped cream, scattering them evenly over the top.

Place the middle cake layer on top of the cherries, pressing it lightly into the whipped-cream layer. Brush with syrup, spread with whipped cream, and scatter the remaining half of the cherries over the cream.

Finally, add the last cake layer, cut side up, on top of the cherries, again settling it into the whipped-cream layer. Brush with syrup. With an icing spatula or a large rubber spatula, spread a thin layer of whipped cream over the top of the cake. Spread a thicker layer onto the sides.

Pastry shops add a decorative scalloped edge of ground dark chocolate around the base of the cake. Fill your cupped palm with some of the ground chocolate and lift and tilt it onto the base of the cake all around the bottom edge. Rotate the cake between handfulls. It's the heel of your hand that forms the scalloped edge.

Rotate the edge of a sharp knife against the block of chocolate to make curls or cut shavings with a vegetable peeler. Pile them on top of the cake.

Scoop the remaining whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip. Pipe fat rosettes all around the top edge of the cake. Press a fresh or spirited cherry into the center of each rosette. Refrigerate the cake for at least 4 hours to let the flavors meld. Just before serving, dust the top with powdered sugar.

Alcohol-Free Variation

Use about 24 ounces of preserved sour cherries in syrup. Drain the cherries, reserving the syrup and cherries separately. In a small saucepan, bring to a boil 1/3 cup espresso or strong coffee, the reserved syrup, and 3/4 cup sugar (or to taste), stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and reserve until needed.

Bûche de Noël de Henri Variation

For our Christmas menu in 2010, we used Black Forest flavors for our bûche de Noël. We baked the génoise as a sheet cake, soaked it with the kirsch syrup, spread it thickly with the whipped cream, and then scattered the cherries over the cream before rolling up the cake. We iced it with the traditional chocolate buttercream. This makes a lighter-than-usual bûche, and our guests cleaned their plates.

Notes:
If using jarred cherries, drain them, reserving both the syrup and the cherries. Measure the amount of syrup and set aside. Macerate the cherries in a glass bowl in 1/2 cup of kirsch for 1 hour, tossing them occasionally. Drain the cherries, reserving them and the kirsch separately. Pour the syrup into a small saucepan with the kirsch and add sugar, if needed, to make a slightly sweet, cherry-flavored syrup. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and set aside until needed. You need about 1 cup of syrup for the cake. Use the rest as a sauce for ice cream.

SELECT LATEST REVIEWS

The cake turned out well and tasted great. I think 4 cups of whipping cream is far too much. I had almost an inch of whipped cream between the layers and had about a cup and a half left over. Next time I will use 2 to 2.5 cups of cream. As well, I think the layers of cake could take more syrup as it was a little dry. My genoise sunk slightly in the center making it difficult to get three equal sized layers. Some research shows you should take some of the whipped batter and fold in the melted butter lightly and then incorporate this mixture into the rest of the batter. It could be a reason for some deflating of the batter.

A Cook from Toronto / 12.24.14

Print with Recipe

oops - forgot to give a rating with the last comment.

pinkdc / 12.21.14

Print with Recipe

This is a great recipe. It seemed heavy on the eggs, but does not taste 'eggy'. The ratios are perfect. I made this for a party, and it got lots of compliments.

pinkdc from Toronto, ON / 12.21.14

Print with Recipe

I have never made a Black Forest cake before but the cherries in the store looked so delicious I decided to make one. I made this recipe and it was delicious. I would probably make the following changes if making it again. Use a 9" pan and cut the cream to 3 cups. I cooked the cherries in a sugar sirup and sprinkled the sugar sirup on the cake layers (no alcohol) and for the person who said there was a missing ingredient in the cake a genoese cake does not have baking powder it relies on it leveling from the eggs.
"

ABC_123 from Denmark / 07.06.14

Print with Recipe

I was searching for this black forest cake recipe it really tastes great.

byGilles / 06.27.14

Print with Recipe

I liked it very much, I used a sponge cake recipe for the cake and then followed the recipe. Also my cherries were frozen, so I defrosted them and added sugar to their juices and reduced it on the stove, this way the kids got to try it too. Just one NOTE to "nlaszlo" here, if you and your family are on a diet or trying to lose weight you should not have cake, period, sugar won't help. Eat and review fruits and yogurts not cakes.

elvy101 from Miami, FL / 06.11.14

Print with Recipe

Made the Yule Log for Christmas and
forgot to review. My cake came out
rather tough on the bottom. The roll
only required half of the syrup,
cherries and whipped cream; I think the
amounts called for are for the round
cake that is pictured. I actually had
enough left for a second roll, and used
a different genoise recipe for that,
but it was a bit too soft to hold the
syrup. Both cakes tasted delicious, and
it was a nice dessert for Christmas
dinner, since it was special, but not
overly rich and heavy.
I'd like to make it again, using the
spirited cherries recipe. A large jar
of good quality cherries that weren't
in a pie syrup cost $12. Planning
ahead will save a lot of money, and
probably taste better, too!

HungryAgain from Pittsburgh, PA / 05.10.13

Print with Recipe

Made this recipe for a dinner party as is.The cake was phenomenally good!!! sour cherries are out of season - finally found imported sour cherries in a very light syrup which I marinated in a good Kirsch. I did cut some sugar from the syrup to make it more tangy. The cocoa should be added in as few strokes as possible with a wide whisk so as not to deflate the batter. The melted butter should be just slightly warm when adding (too cold and it will solidify in streaks/too hot it will deflate the batter). I found the layers would be too thin if I cut the round into 3 layers, so I cut into 2 and baked another round for the third layer. Decorated with white cherries and dark chocolate shavings. Cake was beaufifully light and airy,yet moist. Received rave reviews for finished product. Will definitely add to my favourites.

sabine60 from Toronto,On / 01.12.13

Print with Recipe

I made this as a
buche de noel and it
was fabulous! Though
I will note that
there is way too
much whipped cream
here to roll into a
log so it did not
roll beautifully,
but once covered
with chocolate
buttercream it was
lovely and the
flavors were
awesome. I did not
have Kirsch so I did
this non-alchohol
variation, reducing
the cherry syrup
considerably and
then added some
brandy in at the
end--delicious! Cake
worked beautifully.
I don't know what
went wrong for other
reviewers here.
I will make it as a
layer cake rather
than buche de noel
next time (I will
also bake the cake
in three separate
round pans rather
than try to split
one large one (this
may be the problem
with the recipe...I
have read many
reviews of genoise
baked in a single 9"
round that caved in)
just reduce the bake
time.